Jul 12 2015
Rodney Schroeder
Fingerling
Member Since :
2011
Number of Posts :
84
Saturday was first time back on Kickapoo for a couple of years. Found the lake to be much more fishable than last time. Still have some coontail but was not to the surface and any scattered patch was holding fish. Started at sunrise and with trusty Pop-R and had 15+ in cooler and released 5-6 by 8:30 and had not made it completely around lake. Changed to a swim bait on spinner head and weightless worm and continued to catch fish in the shoreline weeds and any of the moss beds. By 10:30 had the cooler as full as I wanted so moved deeper for a bigger fish but kept catching the usual 10-15". One set of the hook and thought I had found the big one but when finally got toboat it turned out to be a bid turtle snagged on a rattletrap. Luckily had the edge of the shell just above head and with a little slack he swap away and I kept lure and my fingers. Finished by 11:30 with 37 to take home and 10 released. 5-6 of 37 were dinks which would actually be a compliment to a couple. The 10-13 size looked healthy but any over 14 had more head than body and very thin.
Jul 12 2015
Steve Alexander
Admin
Member Since :
2002
Number of Posts :
1170
Rodney…Great report. Reports like this really help us with our fish management. We are headed the right direction at this lake. I taught my nephew how to fish plastics on this lake. 4 years ago, we caught over a 100 fish and nothing over 14 inches, in fact most were 8 to 12 inches (Dinks). But, you could catch a fish on every other cast. We have achieved or been very close to our harvest goal each of the last 3 years. According to today only 15% of those fish were dinks. Your report has been consistent with others for the past 6 months. While we have a long way to go, the fish size has come way up. For those of you, who think big deal, the fish use to average 10 inches and now they average 13 inches, not much gain. Wrong…that means the average fish are now 100% heavier than they were just 3 years ago. Fish harvest is just one tool we use to grow fish, but for many lakes it is a key component.